A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967Quotes
The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—Laozi